“Universities worldwide, under the guise of research neutrality, continue to profit from an [Israeli] economy now operating in genocidal mode. Indeed, they are structurally dependent on settler-colonial collaborations and funding.”This is what United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese wrote in her latest report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide”, which documents the financial tentacles of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and beyond. Its release prompted the United States’ governing regime to issue sanctions against Albanese in a move the Italian legal scholar rightly described as “obscene” and “mafia intimidation tactics”.
The report reveals how universities not only invest their endowments in corporations linked to Israel’s war machine, but also engage in directly or support research initiatives that contribute to it. It is not only a damning indictment of the complicity of academia in genocide, but also a warning to university administrations and academics that they hold legal responsibility.
In Israel, Albanese observes, traditional humanities disciplines such as law, archaeology, and Middle Eastern studies essentially launder the history of the Nakba, reframing it through colonial narratives that erase Palestinian histories and legitimise an apartheid state that has transitioned into what she describes as a “genocidal machine”. Likewise, STEM disciplines engage in open collaborations with military industrial corporations, such as Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, IBM, and Lockheed Martin, to facilitate their research and development. Advertisement
In the United States, Albanese writes, research is funded by the …
